While there have been other accounts of laypersons encountering a person or persons whom they identified as Secret Service agents on November 22, 1963, this article will focus on the experiences of local law enforcement personnel. The idea that a “secret service agent” was allegedly encountered on the grassy knoll is well known, but the encounters local Dallas law enforcement personnel had on November 22, 1963 with persons whom they either identified or were identified to them as being agents of the United States Secret Service in the immediate hours after the assassination of President Kennedy is more extensive than is commonly known. This article will focus on their collective experiences.

On September 24, 1964 the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy issued its long-awaited report. Named after its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren, in Appendix XII of their Report the Commissioners addressed various Speculations and Rumors concerning the assassination. In this Appendix, they wrote,

“Many people who witnessed the assassination and the killing of Oswald or were present in the area were a major source of diverse and often contradictory information. As is easily understood under such circumstances, all of the witnesses did not see and hear the same thing or interpret what they saw and heard the same way and many changed their stories as they repeated them. …Moreover, those closest to the assassination were subjected to a physical and emotional strain that tended to affect their recollections of what they thought they saw or heard,”1.

Undoubtedly, this is how they would have characterized the testimony of Dallas Police Department Officer, Joe Marshall Smith. On November 22, 1963, Officer Smith was stationed at the intersection of Elm and Houston Streets. His job was to hold back traffic heading west down Elm St. and prevent it from interfering with the motorcade as it progressed through the Elm and Houston intersection. He told the Warren Commission that at the time of the shots, he started up towards the Texas School Book Depository, when, “…this woman came up to me and she was just in hysterics. She told me, "They are shooting the President from the bushes." So I immediately proceeded up here.”2.

As Officer Smith ran down the Elm St. Extension that runs directly in front of the TSBD, he checked the bushes and the cars in the parking lot behind the grassy area back from Elm St. towards the railroad tracks. However, he was not alone. Smith told the Warren Commission that, “Of course, I wasn't alone. There was some deputy sheriff with me, and I believe one Secret Service man when I got there. I got to make this statement, too. I felt awfully silly, but after the shot and this woman, I pulled my pistol from my holster, and I thought, this is silly, I don't know who I am looking for, and I put it back. Just as I did, he showed me that he was a Secret Service agent”. Warren Commission Counsel, Wesley Liebeler asked Officer Smith if he had accosted this man. Joe Smith replied, “Well, he saw me coming with my pistol and right away he showed me who he was”. Liebeler asked if Smith remembered who it was and Smith replied, “No, sir; I don't--because then we started checking the cars. In fact, I was checking the bushes, and I went through the cars, and I started over here in this particular section.”3.

Perhaps Officer Smith’s recollection could have been tainted by his “physical and emotional strain”, except for two things. First, he said that the Secret Service agent “showed me that he was a Secret Service agent”. The question arises, had Officer Smith ever seen Secret Service credentials? As a matter of fact, Smith told author Anthony Summers that he had. As he said to Summers, “The man, this character produced credentials from his hip pocket which showed him to be Secret Service. I have seen those credentials before, and they satisfied me and the deputy sheriff.”4.

Secondly, Smith says a Deputy Sheriff was present. This Deputy may or may not have been Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman, because he too reports an encounter with Secret Service agents in Dealey Plaza immediately following the assassination. Deputy Weitzman told Warren Commission Counsel Joseph Ball that at the time of the assassination, he was standing at the corner of Main And Houston Sts. At the sound of the shots, he immediately ran into Dealey Plaza and scaled the wall that runs between the railroad tracks and the Elm St. Extension. Counsel Ball asked him if he noticed anything in the railroad yards. Weitzman answered, “We noticed numerous kinds of footprints that did not make sense because they were going different directions”. Mr. Ball asked if there were other people there. Weitzman replied, “Yes, sir; other officers, Secret Service as well, and somebody started, there was something red in the street and I went back over the wall and somebody brought me a piece of what he thought to be a firecracker and it turned out to be, I believe, I wouldn't quote this, but I turned it over to one of the Secret Service men and I told them it should go to the lab because it looked to me like human bone. I later found out it was supposedly a portion of the President's skull.”5. Weitzman indicates that more than one agent was present and has enough of an encounter with one of them not only speak to him, but also to hand him something.

Were there other sightings of Secret Service agents by local law enforcement personnel? Surprisingly enough, there were. At least eight other members of the Dallas Police Department and/or Dallas Co. Sheriff’s office had an encounter with someone who they identified, or were identified to them as being members of the United States Secret Service.

Was there a Secret Service Agent in the motorcade’s pilot car? When Mr. McCloy asked White House Detail Advance man, Winston Lawson if there was a Secret Service agent in the pilot car, Lawson firmly said, “No sir; there was not.” He told McCloy that the first SS agent was in the lead car.6.

Two of the Dallas Police Detectives who rode in that car however, either reported or testified that there was a secret service agent in the car. In his undated after-action report filed with Police Chief Jesse Curry, Detective B.L. Senkel, who rode in the car, wrote, “Deputy Chief Lumpkin told us there would be a Secret Service Agent riding with us from Love Field. We left Love Field ahead of the motorcade. Deputy Chief Lumpkin driving, Detective Turner in front right seat. I was sitting in the left rear seat, the army officer in the center, and the Secret Service agent in right rear seat.”7. In his undated after-action report, his fellow Detective F. M. Turner would write, “A Secret Service man met us at Love Field. He rode in Chief Lumpkin’s car with us out in front of the motorcade.”8. On April 3, 1964, F.M. Turner was called to testify before the Warren Commission. He was asked about the occupants of the pilot car, and responded that in addition to his partner, Detective B.L. Senkel, and an Army major whose name I do not remember, there was also was, “…also a Secret Service man, whose name I do not remember.”9. Neither Deputy Chief Lumpkin, nor Lt. Colonel George Whitmeyer was called by the Commission to testify.

In the Dallas Police Archives, there is an undated and unsigned report listing the positions assigned to the Homicide and Robbery Bureau officers for the security of the President. For B.L. Senkel and F.M. Turner, the report says that they were in a “Reconnaissance car with Chief G.L. Lumpkin of the City Police Department, Major Weiddemeyer of the U.S. Army, and Secret Service.”10. Also in the Archives, there is a rough draft of an unsigned and undated report listing the activities of the five men from Homicide and Robbery assigned to the President’s security (Fritz, Senkel, Turner, Boyd, and Sims). On the first page of that report is this paragraph, “At 9:50 AM Dets B.L. Senkel and F.M. Turner met Dept Chief George Lumpkin and Maj Weiddemeyer in the basement of the city hall and all proceeded to Love Field with Cheif Lumpkin driving, and arrived there at approx 10:30 AM. At approx 10:50 AM, they along with a Secret Service Agent left Love Field and proceded the presidential party by approx ½ mile and was in constant radio contact with Chief Curry.”11. (spelling and grammatical errors left intact).

In an undated after-action report submitted by Lt. T.L. Baker concerning his duties between November 22nd and the 24th, Baker wrote, “Dets. Senkel and Turner arrived at Love Field at 11:40 AM with Chief Lumpkin, and Major Weiddemeyer, U.S. Army. After the President’s party’s plane had landed, they drove to the gate of Love Field at Cedar Springs and Mockingbird Lane. A Secret Service man had joined them at Love Field, and there were five people in their car.”12

On November 30, 1963 Assistant Chief of Police Charles Batchelor and Deputy Chiefs George Lumpkin and M.W. Stevenson submitted a combined after-action report to Chief Curry. In his chapter of the report, Lumpkin wrote, “Upon arriving at Love Field, G.L. Lumpkin, B.L. Senkel, F.M. Turner, and George Whitmeyer, “…contacted Mr. Forrest Sorrels and Mr. Lawson and were introduced to Mr. Jack Puterbaugh, a member of the White House Staff, whom Mr. Lawson had requested to ride in the pilot car.13.

On April 22, 1964 Police Chief, Jesse Curry told the Warren Commission, “I had Deputy Chief Lumpkin, and he had two Secret Service men with him, I believe, out of Washington, and a Colonel Wiedemeyer who is the East Texas Section Commander of the Army Reserve in the area, he was with him. They were out about, they were supposed to stay about a quarter of a mile ahead of us and I was in the lead car.”14.Given the fact that Winston Lawson told the Warren Commission that Jack Puterbaugh had flown into Dallas with him ten days previously on November 12th, and even after being “introduced” to Mr. Puterbaugh, why Detective Turner and Chief of Police Curry would testify to a blue ribbon commission almost five months later that it was a “secret service man” riding in the car remains a mystery.

Encounters with “secret service agents” also took place outside of Dealey Plaza. At 12:30 in the afternoon on November 22nd, Detective Marvin Buhk of the Dallas City Police Forgery Bureau was supplementing security at the Dallas Trade Mart where President Kennedy was due to give a speech that afternoon. He was on duty on the fourth floor of the Trade Mart when he received word of the President’s assassination. He said that Captain Jones then instructed him to proceed with Lt. Cunningham, E.E. Taylor, and J.B. Toney to the scene of the assassination to see what they could do. Enroute to the scene, they received word that a police officer had been shot in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas and Lt. Cunningham decided that they could do more good by going to that location immediately, rather than by way of the President’s shooting. While they were driving, they received word of the suspect being in the branch library at Jefferson and Marsalis. As Buhk wrote in his after-action report to Police Chief Jesse Curry on December 3, 1963, “We converged on that location and there were Secret Service men and other patrol and CID officers present when all the people were ordered out of the building. One of the Secret Service men stated the person who came out of the basement with the others was not the suspect and that he had already talked to him a few minutes previously.”15.

Notice that Marvin Buhk speaks of more than one Agent being present. The “Agent” Buhk spoke to was also a primary catalyst in shifting attention away from the branch library. At 1:32PM, Patrolman C.T. Walker broadcasts on Channel 2 that the suspect is in the Library. At approximately 1:40 Sergeant C.B. Owens tells Dispatch, and the Dispatcher broadcasts to all cars to “Disregard all information on the suspect arrested, it was the wrong man.”16. This is only about an eight-minute window of opportunity. When did these “secret service men” arrive at the Library, how did they know to go there, and when did one of them have time to “talk to the man previously”?

Persons identified as Secret Service Agents were also seen in and around the Texas School Book Depository. A Sergeant in the Dallas Police Department for a little over 17 years, D.V. Harkness was responsible for supervising the traffic officers from Main and Field along the parade route to Elm and Houston. Harkness was on a three-wheeled motorcycle and at the time of the shots, he drove to Main and Industrial to see if he could see anyone fleeing the area. Seeing none, he drove to the front of the TSBD and along the fence that runs alongside the Elm St. Extension. There he encountered Amos Euins. After hearing what Euins had to say about seeing a rifle in a window, Harkness put him on the back of his motorcycle and delivered him to Inspector Sawyer’s car. He then went around to the back of the TSBD. Warren Commission Belin asked him if there was anyone else in the back of the building. Harkness answered, “There were some Secret Service agents there. I didn't get them identified. They told me they were Secret Service.”17. Harkness remained at the back of the building until a squad relieved him. He was then assigned by Sawyer to go help search out the railroad cars.

The “Secret Service” agents D.V. Harkness encountered at the rear of the TSBD probably did not include the “agent” Roger Craig had an encounter with in the front of the Depository. On April 1, 1964 Roger Craig told the Warren Commission that he had been with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department since October of 1959.18. Along with most of the deputies on duty that day, he had been standing in front of the Sheriff’s Office on the corner of Main and Houston Sts. watching the motorcade. When the shots rang out, he ran across Houston and Elm Sts, up the grassy knoll and into the railroad yards. While helping to keep people out of the railroad yards, he encountered witnesses Barbara and Arnold Rowland. After listening to their account, he turned this couple over to criminal investigator, Deputy Sheriff C.L. “Lummie” Lewis. After hearing that a bullet had ricocheted on the south side of Elm St., Craig and Buddy Walthers crossed Elm and began searching for evidence of a bullet. While searching on the south side of Elm, Craig heard a whistle and observed a person, whom he later identified as Lee Harvey Oswald run down the grassy park in front of the Elm St. extension and get into a Nash Rambler station wagon.19.

On November 23, 1963 he filed a Supplementary Investigation report with Dallas Sheriff, Bill Decker. In his report, he said that, “I tried to get across the street to stop the car and talk with subjects, but the traffic was so heavy, I could not make it. I reported this incident at once to a secret service officer whose name I do not know, then I left this area and went at once to the building and assisted in the search of the building.”20.

Years later, Roger Craig was to write,

"I learned nothing of this "Secret Service Agent's" identity until December 22, 1967 while we were living in New Orleans. The television was on as I came home from work one night and there on the screen was a picture of this man. I did not know what it was all about until my wife told me that Jim Garrison had charged him with being a part of the assassination plot. I called Jim Garrison then and told him that this was the man I had seen in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Jim then sent one of his investigators to see me with a better picture which I identified. I then learned that this man's name was Edgar Eugene Bradley. It was a relief to me to know his name for I had been bothered by the fact that I had failed to get his name when he had told me he was a Secret Service Agent and I had given him my information. On the night of the assassination when I had come home and discussed the day with my wife I had, of course, told her of this encounter and my failure to get his name."21.

Mr. Ratcliffe writes that Roger Craig learned from Jim Garrison that this man's name was Edgar Eugene Bradley, a right wing preacher from North Hollywood, California and part-time assistant to Carl McIntire, the fundamentalist minister who had founded the American Counsel of Christian Churches. Then-governor Ronald Reagan refused to grant the extradition request from Garrison for the indictment of Bradley during the New Orleans Probe.22.

Roger Craig told the Warren Commission that he entered the School Book Depository to aid in its search about 20 minutes after the shots were fired. The “secret service agent” Craig encountered may or may not have been the secret service agent Sims and Boyd saw on the sixth floor of the School Book Depository at the time the rifle was found at approximately 1:22PM.

Following the assassination, Detectives Richard M. Sims and Elmer L. Boyd of the Homicide and Robbery Bureau filed a joint after-action report with Police Chief Jesse Curry. In their undated report, Sims and Boyd said that while originally they were assigned to the Dallas Trade Mart to help with security; when they learned of the President’s shooting, they drove to Parkland Hospital with Captain Will Fritz. Chief Curry met them in front of the hospital and ordered Captain Fritz to go to the scene of the shooting. Sims and Boyd returned to downtown Dallas along with Captain Fritz and Sheriff Bill Decker. They arrived at the Texas School Book Depository at approximately 12:58PM and participated in the search of the TSBD. They report that the rifle was found at about 1:25PM and identify persons who were present when it was photographed. They knew enough of the federal agencies involved to make the distinction between the FBI, the Secret Service and officers of the ATF. They wrote, “Detective Studebaker and Lieutenant Day took pictures of the rifle. Mr. Pinkston of the F.B.I. and a Secret Service Agent were there at the time the pictures were being made. We don’t know the Secret Service agent’s name. Mr. Ellsworth and another officer from Alcohol Tax Department were also there.”23.

Though the timing is right; for two reasons, I do not believe that this Secret Service Agent is Forrest Sorrels. Forrest Sorrels was head of the Secret Service, Dallas Field office and was the only known member of the Secret Service to return immediately to downtown Dallas following the shooting. In their Final Report, the House Select Committee on Assassinations was to conclude, “In every instance, therefore, the Committee was able to establish the movement and the activities of Secret Service agents. Except for Dallas Agent-in-Charge Sorrels, who helped police search the Texas School Book Depository, no agent was in the vicinity of the stockade fence or inside the School Book Depository on the day of the assassination.”24. A careful reading of Sorrrels’ Warren Commission testimony however, shows that the HSCA’s conclusion might have been in error.

Sorrels was in the lead car of the motorcade with Secret Service advance man, Winston Lawson, Police Chief Jesse Curry, and Sheriff Bill Decker. When the President was shot, they accompanied the motorcade to Parkland Hospital. Sorrels told the Warren Commission that after watching Governor Connally and President Kennedy taken into the Hospital, “I immediately went into a police car that was leaving and asked them to take me to the building as fast as they could, and when I said the building I meant the one on the corner there, which was the Book Depository.”25. He testified that they arrived back at the TSBD no more than 20 – 25 minutes after the shots were fired.26.

This policeman is identified as B.L. Senkel. In his undated after-action report filed with Chief Curry, Senkel said that he rode in the pilot car and followed the motorcade to Parkland Hospital. He watched the victims being unloaded, and then left the hospital at 12:45PM. He wrote that he, “Had additional passenger, Forrest Sorrels, U.S. Secret Service. We proceeded to scene of shooting. Arrived at the Texas School Book Depository, Houston and Elm Street at about 12:50PM November 22, 1963.”27.

Earlier I said that there were two reasons that I did not believe Forrest Sorrels was the Secret Service agent Sims and Boyd saw on the sixth floor. The first is that the two Dallas Police detectives said that the agent was unknown to them. Forrest Sorrels told the Warren Commission however, that “…the Dallas Police Department, in my opinion, has some very good leaders, career men who have been there for many years, and due to the fact I have been located in Dallas for many, many years I know these people personally.” (not speaking of Sims and Boyd in particular).28. He also said that over the course of the weekend, he had to identify himself numerous times. “Many times when I would be going into the third floor area there, they would start to stop me, and a lot of the guys that would know me would say, "That is Sorrels of the Secret Service." That happened more than once. And, of course, I would have to go ahead and identify myself. The officers that were on duty that had seen me before would recognize me and pass me through.”29.

Secondly, a careful reading of Forrest Sorrels testimony indicates that he did not go up to the sixth floor. He arrived at the TSBD, went in the back door and immediately asked for the building manager, who was standing right there. He identified himself and asked for a list of employees. While he was talking to Mr. Truly, he asked if anyone saw anything. Howard Brennan and Amos Euins were pointed out to him. He interviewed them and then took them to the Sheriff’s Department to get their statements. He also spent time talking to the Rowlands and also apparently talked to Julia Ann Mercer about a stalled truck in the area before the parade, because he told the Commission that in addition to the truck, “… this lady said she thought she saw somebody that looked like they had a guncase. But then I didn't pursue that any further-- because then I had gotten the information that the rifle had been found in the building and shells and so forth.”30. In other words, he was not present when the rifle was found on the sixth floor, where Sims and Boyd said that a ”secret service agent” was present. Sorrels then went on to accompany Abraham Zapruder to several locations attempting to get his film developed.

While the HSCA concluded that Sorrels was the only known Secret Service Agent to have returned to downtown Dallas in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, and he went there from Parkland Hospital; on the Log of the Radio Transcripts of Channel 2 that are in the Dallas Police Archives, there is this exchange:

At 12:38PM on channel 2, #39 breaks in and says, "39 clear me with a 202 assignment in -- station wagon with secret service man downtown".A couple of entries later, it appears that someone says, "And 139 meet me at -- entrance to Love Field. I have additional cars to route out there".(The Dispatcher, presumably) says, "You will have to take them on because he is coming downtown with some secret service men. 110".Then again, someone says, "I'm in the sergeant's car. 39, on the other hand, is still in the Love Field car."31.

In an email dated November 21, 2002, from noted author and JFK researcher, Ian Griggs, Ian said that on November 22nd, radio call sign# 39 was assigned jointly to Patrolmen J.F. Butcher of the Northwest Area substation, second platoon and Charles W. Comer of the Southwest Area substation, second platoon. Referencing Warren Commission Exhibit 2645 (page 5 of exhibit at 25H 911) Ian said that this Exhibit is an FBI report dated 15 June 1964, concerning whereabouts of police cars subsequent to assassination.32. They were on what Captain Talbert described as 'special assignment at specified locations during this shift.' In the case of these two particular officers, that location was Love Field.

What is odd is that this exchange does not appear in the transcription of Channel 2 provided in volume XXI of the Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits (Sawyer Exhibit A)33. or in volume 23 (CE 1974)34. It does appear in CE 705, but not until 12:54 PM.35. Forrest Sorrels was returning downtown from Parkland Hospital. Who was this agent that needed a ride from Love Field at 12:38PM?

There is strong evidence that there was a Secret Service Agent present during Oswald’s first interrogation at a time when no known Secret Service Agent was in the Police Headquarters. If that is the case, who could this person have been? In the same rough draft of an unsigned and undated report detailing the activities of the five detectives from Homicide and Robbery detailed to the security of the President referenced earlier in the Dallas Police Archives there is there is this entry on page four, “Capt Fritz interrogated Lee Oswald the first time at approx 2:20 PM. Present at this interrogation was FBI agenst Bookout and Hosty. Also a Secret Service Agent, Dets Sims and Boyd.”36. (spelling and grammatical errors left intact).

In his Warren Commission testimony of April 6, 1964, Detective Elmer L. Boyd testified that he took Lee Harvey Oswald to Captain Fritz’s office for questioning at 2:20PM. He was asked if there was a Secret Service agent present. He responded, “Let me see---I think there was a Secret Service man there, but I don't recall---I don't know what his name was.”37. Boyd described taking Oswald down for his first lineup at 4:05PM and returning to the office at 4:20PM. Joseph Ball asked him if there was a Secret Service man there. Boyd answered, “I think there was a Secret Service man there.” Mr. BALL. “More than one?” Mr. BOYD. “Just one.” Mr. BALL. “Do you know his name?” Mr. BOYD. “Let me see if I have it here.”38. Ball then diverted the conversation to a discussion of Secret Service Inspector Kelley’s presence (who told the House Subcommittee on Assassinations on September 19, 1978 that he was in Louisville, KY on November 22, 1963 and did not arrive in Dallas until that evening). Mr. Matthews. “I want to call your attention to November 22, 1963. At that time you were in Louisville, KY?” Mr. Kelley. “Yes sir.” 39. On arriving in Dallas, Kelley said that he met with Mr. Sorrels and they then went to the police department. For some reason, Kelly believed that he attended the second interrogation of Oswald. He was also under the impression that no one from the Secret Service had talked to Oswald prior to his arrival. Mr. EDGAR. “Did he indicate to you at that time that you were the first Secret Service agent to talk with him?” Inspector KELLEY. “No; I don't recall that conversation with him.” Mr. EDGAR. “Had he encountered any other Secret Service agents prior to your conversation with him?” Inspector KELLEY. “No; he hadn't.”40. However, as we will see later, Secret Service Agents had been talking with Oswald much earlier in the day.

Although it is probably a minor point, in an affidavit filed with the Warren Commission on June 1, 1964, Kelley said that he was in Lexington, where he had been engaged in a special assignment. He flew to Dallas directly from Lexington and arrived in Dallas at approximately 10:30PM.41. What is not in doubt is that Kelley was not the Secret Service Agent Boyd was about to identify.

Detective Richard M. Sims was also present during this first interrogation and when he was asked by Joseph Ball on April 6, 1964 who was present during this first interrogation, Sims responded, “Well, let's see, we first went in there at 2 and we stayed in there evidently--this says here that the Secret Service and the FBI took part in the interrogation of Oswald with Captain Fritz, and we took him down to the first showup at 4:05.”42. After the first lineup, they brought Oswald back to Fritz’s office at 4:20PM. Mr. Ball asked who was present then. Sims answered, “The FBI agents and Secret Service agents talked to Oswald some more.” Mr. BALL. “What were their names?” Mr. SIMS. “I don't know their names.” Mr. BALL. “You didn't record the names of the Secret Service officers?” Mr. SIMS. “No, sir.”43.

The other Dallas Policeman known to be present was Captain Will Fritz. When he testified to the Warren Commission on April 22, 1964, Fritz claimed not to remember who else was there besides FBI agents Bookhout and Hosty.44. However, in an undated summary of his interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald, Captain Fritz wrote that as soon as found out that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who had been brought in for the killing of J.D. Tippit, “I instructed the officers to bring this man into the office after talking to the officers for a few minutes in the presence of Officers R.M. Sims and E.L Boyd of the Homicide Bureau and possibly some Secret Service men.”45.

Deputy Police Chief, M.W. Stevenson, commander of the criminal investigation division, testified before the Warren Commission on March 23, 1964. He had been stationed at the Trade Mart, later went to the hospital, and escorted President Kennedy’s hearse to Love Field. After Air Force 1 departed Dallas, he returned to Police Headquarters where he arrived about 4:00PM. He was asked if he saw Oswald at that time. Stevenson answered, “No, sir; I didn't; he was being interviewed, but I did not see him. Mr. HUBERT. “Who was interviewing him?” Mr. STEVENSON. “Captain Fritz and some FBI agent, I don't know who, and I believe a Secret Service agent.”46

Police Chief Jesse Curry too is a witness to the presence of a Secret Service Agent during Oswald’s first interrogation between 2:20PM and 4:05PM. Curry had returned to Love Field with Vice President Johnson’s party and witnessed his swearing in as the new President. After Johnson departed Dallas at 2:47PM, Curry spoke to Mayor Cabell and others and then returned to Police Headquarters accompanied by Secret Service Agents Winston Lawson and David Grant. He told the Warren Commission that he arrived at Headquarters at 4:00PM and added, “At that time I understood there was a representative from Secret Service already in the room and the representative from the FBI went in--one or two FBI representatives.”47.

FBI Agent James Bookhout was interviewed on April 8, 1964 and told the Warren Commission that he and Agent Hosty entered the room at 3:15PM. He was not asked if there were Secret Service Agents present. 48.

Forrest Sorrels tried to leave the impression with the Warren Commission that he was present in the Dallas Police Headquarters early in the afternoon of November 22nd; testifying that he arrived “fairly close to 2:00PM.”49. However, I do not believe this is true for six reasons:

1) From their testimony, it is apparent that Detectives Sims and Boyd did not know or did not record the name of the “secret service agent” who was present during Oswald’s first interrogation. Sorrels said that when he started to talk to Oswald, Oswald said, "I don't know who you fellows are, a bunch of cops." And I said, "Well, I will tell you who I am. My name is Sorrels and I am with the United States Secret Service, and here is my commission book."50. If Sorrels identified himself on November 22nd and showed his credentials, why were Sims and Boyd testifying in April of 1964 that they did not know who this person was?

2) After arriving at the TSBD at 1:00PM, I do not believe that Sorrels could have spoken with Mr. Truly and asked for a list of employees, spoken to Amos Euins and Howard Brennan, taken them to the Sheriff’s Office where he got their statements, talked to Arnold and Barbara Rowland and Julia Ann Mercer, learn of Abraham Zapruder and his film, go to his office and then accompany him to three different photography studios trying to get his film developed, and make it back to Dallas Police Headquarters by 2:00PM. If nothing else, traffic was almost at a standstill. SA Winston Lawson told the Warren Commission that, “I recall that it was very bad traffic in the downtown area. We were bumper to bumper and didn't move a few times because apparently the chief thought everybody was converging on the downtown area to see this, plus all the people who had been there when it happened and just stayed there.”51.

3) Phillip Willis was a retired Air Force Major and amateur photographer. He and his wife Marilyn had taken their children out of school that day to go down and see the President and get some pictures. Marilyn Willis told Harold Weisburg that they remained in Dealey Plaza for about an hour after the assassination and then drove out to the Eastman Kodak plant near Love Field to get their pictures developed. She said that they arrived at the plant while Air Force 1 was taking off for the return flight to Washington. From Secret Service accounts, we know that that occurred at 2:47PM. She said that while they were waiting for their pictures to get developed, Abraham Zapruder arrived at the plant with Forrest Sorrels. Both Phillip and Marilyn Willis confirmed to Harold Weisberg that before Sorrels left, all the films had been processed, “and all viewed them.”52. Sorrels could not have returned to downtown Dallas before 3:00PM and it was probably closer to 4:00PM.

4) While Sorrels told the Warren Commission that he arrived at Police Headquarters “fairly” close to 2:00PM, FBI Agent James Hosty told the Commissioners that it was much later. Hosty testified, “At approximately 6 p.m. on the 22d of November 1963, Special Agent in Charge Forrest V. Sorrels of the United States Secret Service entered Captain Fritz' office with about five or six Secret Service agents. He then proceeded to interview Lee Harvey Oswald, I was not present during this interview. I did see him take Lee Oswald to the rear of Captain Fritz' outer office and interview Lee Oswald. It appeared to me that Forrest Sorrels of the Secret Service had appeared for the purpose of representing the United States Secret Service in this investigation.”53.

5) By all accounts, Captain Fritz handled the first interrogation, but when Forrest Sorrels arrived to talk to Oswald, he took Oswald in a back room54. and handled the interrogation himself. Winston Lawson confirmed this and also appears to have confirmed James Hosty’s account of Sorrels, et.al. arriving at 6:00PM.

Mr. LAWSON. “Mr. Sorrels and a couple other agents and myself saw Lee Harvey Oswald when he was brought in for Mr. Sorrels to talk to at Mr. Sorrels' request.” Mr. STERN. “Did you interrogate him”? Mr. LAWSON. “No, sir; I did not.” Mr. STERN. “Did Mr. Sorrels handle the interrogation alone?” Mr. LAWSON. “Yes, sir; that particular one.” Mr. LAWSON. “Mr. Sorrels in asking the questions already had some background on Mr. Oswald before he started questioning Mr. Oswald. The detectives or other individuals had told them what they knew up to this point about Oswald, his name, that he had been out of the country previous to this time to Russia, and a few other things. It was known at the particular time, perhaps 6 or 7 o'clock.”55.

6) According to the transcripts of the police radio traffic prepared by the Dallas Police Department in March, 1964 (Warren Commission Exhibit 705), Patrolman C.L. Osburn (# 113) radioed into Headquarters at 2:21 PM on Channel 1, “I have 3rd Platoon Officer, Joe B. Jones with me. We are to remain out on special assignment from Elm and Houston to the Dallas Morning News with Mr. Sorrels of the Secret Service.”56. At 3:00 PM on Channel 2, the Deputy Chief N.T. Fisher asked the Dispatcher to have someone check out at Parkland Hospital for any local Secret Service personnel. Sgt. W.C. Campbell (# 280) asks over Channel 2, “Will you find out if Mr. Sorrels from the Secret Service is out there and advise 4?” (Deputy Chief Fisher).57. At 3:14 PM the Dispatcher advised Deputy Chief Fisher that Sorrels was not at Parkland. “The last information we had was he was going to the Dallas Morning News Building.”58. At 3:20 PM, the Dispatcher advised Deputy Chief Fisher, “Sorrels is now enroute to Captain Fritz’s office.”59.

In Chapter II of the Warren Report the Commissioners concluded “Other Secret Service agents assigned to the motorcade remained at their posts during the race to the hospital. None stayed at the scene of the shooting and none entered the Texas School Book Depository Building at or immediately after the shooting…. Forrest V. Sorrels, special agent in charge of the Dallas Office, was the first Secret Service agent to return to the scene of the assassination, approximately 20 or 25 minutes after the shots were fired.”60.

A careful reading and cross-referencing of the reports filed by the Secret Service Agents assigned to protective service on November 22nd that can be found in Chapters 18 and 25 of the Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits appears to bear this out. However, in its conclusion, the Warren Commission only addressed the whereabouts of the agents assigned to the motorcade.

There is a listing in the Dallas Police Archives of the Secret Service personnel who assisted in the investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald. These names include:Forrest SorrelsMr. KelleyWilliam H. PattersonRoger WarnerWinston LawsonMike Howard – whose actual name is James H. HowardCharles KunkelJohn HowlettDave Grant61.

William H. Patterson is one candidate for this Secret Service Agent who may have been present at Oswald’s first interrogation from 2:20PM to 4:05PM. In his Report dated 11/22/63, Patterson stated, “I stayed in the vicinity of Air Force I until it departed, at which time I returned to the Dallas Field Office.”62. Air Force One, with newly sworn-in President Lyndon Johnson left Dallas at 2:47PM. Patterson may have returned to the Dallas Field Office, but it is possible he didn’t stay there. Deputy Allan Sweatt would write in his Supplementary Investigation Report filed with Sheriff Bill Decker that he was in the Sheriff’s office taking various witness statements, and heard that a suspect had been arrested for the shooting of Officer Tippit. During this time, Deputy Bill Wiseman brought in two girls with some pictures, one of which showed the Sexton Building in the background. (These possibly are Mary Moorman and Jean Hill), Sweatt wrote, “This picture was turned over to Secret Service Agent Patterson, who gave this woman his card, advising her that the picture would be returned to her.”63. In his report, Sweatt does not give the time that these two girls with their pictures were brought in to see him. Patterson does not mention this incident in his Report.

Though not mentioned in the Dallas Police list of Agents who assisted in the investigation, another candidate for this mysterious agent would be Robert Steuart. Steuart had been stationed at the Trade Mart and gone to Parkland Hospital following the assassination. In his official Report, Steuart wrote, “After the President’s death was announced, I returned to the Dallas District Office and took over duties at the telephone, to correlate activities of other agents.”64. President Kennedy’s death was announced about 1:30PM and he could have returned to downtown Dallas in time to take part in Oswald’s interrogation. There is also a possibility that Steuart might not have remained at the Dallas District Office. In his case report on Lee Harvey Oswald, Captain Fritz has the following notation, “Detective C.N. Dhority #476 “Made copies of defendant’s identification for Mr. Stewart of Secret Service. Prepared case report.”65. I believe that Fritz meant Steuart. Dhority makes no mention of this in his after-action report.

Roger Warner and James H. “Mike” Howard were at Love Field assisting in security. After Jackie Kennedy boarded the plane for the return trip to Washington, word came from the Fort Worth Police that they had arrested a suspect driving at a high rate of speed from Dallas to Fort Worth and whom the Fort Worth Police thought might be involved in the assassination. Warner and Howard drove to Fort Worth where they interviewed Donald Wayne House and stated that, “At the time SA Howard and I left for Fort Worth to question the subject, Air Force I had not yet departed from Love Field.”66. In a two page interview with the House Subcommittee on Assassinations, Warner reported that while they were in the process of interviewing this suspect, word came to them that Oswald had been arrested.67.

In a February 15, 1999 article entitled “Conspiracy Beliefs (and Denials) In High Places”, author Vince Palamara quotes an article by reporter Earl Golz in the August 27, 1978 issue of the Dallas Morning News. In his article, Golz wrote that one Dallas Secret Service Agent named Elmer Moore did not submit a report, that he was in San Francisco and did not return to Dallas to join the investigation until a week later. Vince Palamara then went on to say that two other agents did not submit a written report: James H. “Mike” Howard and Charles Kunkel. Palamara wrote, “For his part, Howard claimed in a lecture in February 1999 that he was at the Hotel Texas cleaning up when the shooting occurred and that Kunkel was in Washington, D.C on an unspecified investigation at the time. Howard and Kunkel's whereabouts remain unverified.”68.

Even though Warner’s account of Howard participating in the interview of Donald Wayne House in Fort Worth is not corroborated by Howard, if Warner can be believed that he and Howard were in Fort Worth when news came to them that Oswald had been arrested by 2:00PM, I believe that a better candidate for the alleged Secret Service Agent who participated in Oswald’s first interrogation beginning at 2:20PM is Charles E. Kunkel.

On the afternoon of November 22nd, Detective James Leavelle was spearheading the investigation of Oswald for the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit. On April 7, 1964 he testified to the Warren Commission that he had gone to the Texas Theater, but because of the heavy traffic, had arrived too late to participate in Oswald’s arrest. He then went back to the police station and took affidavits from witnesses. “So, I proceeded back to the office to work on that end of it, checking with the captain, and they was tied up with the Presidential assassination, and not until we got there did I realize some few minutes later on, when talking to some of the people of the Texas Book Depository, did we realize Oswald could very well be the same one who assassinated the President.”69.

The minute that connection was made, the focus of the investigation changed. Will Fritz wanted Oswald in his office right then. FBI agents were called in and if six members of the Dallas Police Department can be believed, at least one Secret Service Agent whose identity has remained a secret ever since November 22, 1963. I believe that Agent is Charles Kunkel, the one Agent whose whereabouts on November 22nd can’t be confirmed. Policemen are proud of their collars and even after 35 years the idea of having one taken away from you still rankles. On the 35th anniversary of the assassination, the Texas Monthly magazine did an interview with several people who were witnesses to the events of November 22nd. One of the interviewees was Detective Jim Leavelle. During the conversation, he had this to say, ”I talked to him, yeah, about 10, maybe 15 minutes one-on-one before Captain Fritz and the other officers came back from the book depository, preparatory to going look for him, and found out he was already there. When the Captain came in and asked me what his name was, and I told him, he asked me where he worked, and he said the book depository, he said, 'You're the one I want to talk to.' So, in essence, they took my prisoner away. I lost my prisoner. He and Chief Charles of the Secret Service.”70. Why Leavelle would have referred to him as “Chief” Charles is a mystery, and we can’t ask Kunkel because he passed away on June 27, 1992. When I asked James Leavelle why he referred to this person as Chief Charles in the article, former Detective Leavelle answered, “I did not say Charles, I said ‘Sorrels, Chief of the S.S.’.”71. I asked the author of the article, Joe Patoski if he had recorded the interview. He wrote me and said that he had not recorded the interview. He used notes and was unsure where those notes were now.72. So, is this an error in transcription? We’ll probably never know.

If Charles Kunkel was indeed on an “unspecified assignment in Washington, D.C.”, there is the question of when he returned to Dallas. We know from the testimony of Mr. James Herbert Martin, who has acted as the business manager of Mrs. Marina Oswald and at the time was Resident Manager of the Six Flags Inn, that James Howard and Charles Kunkel were the Secret Service Agents who arranged for the Oswald family to stay at the motel.”73. Was Charles E. Kunkel the “Secret Service man” who needed a ride from Love Field to downtown Dallas at 12:38PM as recorded in the transcripts of the Dallas Police radio log? Was he also on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository when the rifle was found at 1:22PM?

What does all this mean? For one thing, the incidents of Dallas Policemen and Deputy Sheriffs encountering someone whom they identified, or were identified to them as being members of the U.S. Secret Service is more extensive than is commonly known. There are at least twelve accounts (if you count the identification of Jack Puterbaugh as a Secret Service agent in the pilot car by Detectives Senkel and Turner), and eighteen if you count the six policemen who say there was a Secret Service Agent present during Oswald’s first interrogation beginning at 2:20PM. One of the most astounding elements in all these cases is that aside from the mention by James Leavelle of a Chief Charles thirty five years after the fact, there is no contemporaneous account of a single policeman recording the name of the “agent” or “agents” he encountered that day. In an article published in 2001, noted author, Debra Conway, with contributions from Michael Parks and Mark Colgan, examined the question of a secret service agent on the knoll in her article of the same name. After reviewing the testimony of various witnesses and member of the 112th Military Intelligence Group James Powell, Debra was able to determine who this “agent” was not.74. Since no Secret Service Agent aside from Forrest Sorrels is known to have returned to downtown Dallas in the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, were these agents imposters?

I believe that some were and some were not. I think that the agent on the sixth floor of the TSBD is genuine; the agent on the knoll is not. The agent needing a ride from the airport at 12:38 is probably genuine; the agents encountered at the library probably were not. The agents encountered at the back of the TSBD by David Harkness were probably imposters; the agent in the Dallas Police Headquarters was probably genuine. In either case, the implications are disturbing. It would be evidence of conspiracy if bogus agents were impersonating U.S. Secret Service officials that day; and if there were real Secret Service Agents in and around Dealey Plaza and this fact has been withheld from the American people for close to 40 years, then we have not been told the truth about what really happened one sunny November afternoon in Dallas, TX. in 1963.

Gerald Posner came closer than anyone in solving an occurrence which lent credence to the claims by Conspiracy Theorists that the government had a hand in the assassination.The mystery, however, finally solved by Gus Russo who interviewed Secret Service Agent Mike Howard who had been in charge of security for the Fort Worth leg of the president's Texas trip.Howard had been told by Forrest Sorrells that Sorrels had placed security people in all the areas in Dealey Plaza that were clear security risks, including the area of the Grassy Knoll.Like Howard, Sorrells would have deputised every government agent he could find including agents from the ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms), customs, border patrol, reserve police, deputy sheriffs etc.The motorcade route in Dallas was 'crawling' with these people according to Howard.Howard told Russo that technically these people would not have appeared on any 'official' listing of posted officers and that many of them held the standard ATF identification card which were virtually identical to the Secret Service cards, both issued by the Treasury Department.Russo also spoke to Robert Gemberling, one of the FBI agents who investigated Oswald after his arrest.Gemberling said he remembered being told that two customs agents had spent their lunch breaks helping with security in the Grassy Knoll area.The two agents were identified.

So who were they then?

Found this bit from Al Maddox in Larry Sneed's No More Silence, pages 507 - 508, interesting....

Attached Thumbnails

This "Uzi-type gun" that Malcolm Summers saw, could it perhaps be a broom-handle Mauser pistol (without wooden stock shown)?

Remember that G. P. Hemming dropped the allusion - perhaps first communicated to Oliver Stone - that his intel on 11-22-63 was that a shooter with a broom-handle Mauser was to approach the motorcade. I believe that GPH eventually stated here that this intel was his reason for being militant in Dealey that day.

Weapons experts - since this gun has been brought up in connection with DP, could you evaluate how effective an assassination weapon it would be? Could it, perhaps, have inflicted accurate wounds from the Grassy Knoll using the shoulder stock device?

Could this have been the unusual sort of rifle some Grassy Knoll witnesses describe? Could it have been the weapon that was morphed into a Remington Fireball XP-100 in some "eyewitness" accounts of the Grassy Knoll?

While there have been other accounts of laypersons encountering a person or persons whom they identified as Secret Service agents on November 22, 1963, this article will focus on the experiences of local law enforcement personnel. The idea that a “secret service agent” was allegedly encountered on the grassy knoll is well known, but the encounters local Dallas law enforcement personnel had on November 22, 1963 with persons whom they either identified or were identified to them as being agents of the United States Secret Service in the immediate hours after the assassination of President Kennedy is more extensive than is commonly known. This article will focus on their collective experience.

Good one Bill,A few years ago, I was looking at all the utubes of film during and after on the Grassy Knoll and I saw a man in a long brown coat with a long bulge on his left side he was looking and moving toward Elm and he did have a fedora hat, I think the brim was a little wider than the picture above but ...maybe I can find it again or maybe someone else can find it.... it was really strange for a large overcoat worn on that sunny afternoon. I thought it was from that day and there have been gatherings there since... I sure thought it was a real one from Nov 22, 63 though.

If there was a secret FBI test on JFK's security that day, as I was told by an agent on Sunday on on the way back to California, there could have been FBI or other men working on the test operation that would pose as Secret Service to give the fake test part of the operation a genuine look...with false Secret Service agents.